But that is the only disappointing thing about the Daintree. It is the world's oldest continuous rain forest, estimated to be about 135 million years old. It covers 188,000 acres, but much of it is inaccessible, certainly inaccessible by vehicle. The area that includes the Daintree was named one of UNESCO's World Heritage Properties (in 1988). It is the second most diverse ecosystem in the world, second only to the Great Barrier Reef (another UNESCO World Heritage Property), which lies anywhere from a few to as many as 50-75 kilometers to the east. In the space of about 33 hours, we managed to see the two most diverse ecosystems in the world. Up close and right in the middle of it. Not bad if we say so ourselves.
Our guide today was Juan Walker Kuku. And if I misspelled his last name, I apologize to Juan right now. If you never see the Daintree Rain Forest, that is your loss, and you can skip this paragraph for the advertisement for Juan. But first, you should go see the Daintree. And if you do, you need to have Juan take you. Juan is a member of one of the many thousands of native Aboriginal language groups, the Kuku Yalanji, who have lived in the region for 35,000-40,000 years. He was named after his great grandfather (more about his great grandfather later). Juan knows and loves his land and will share every bit of it with you while he takes on on tour. Juan picked us up right on time at 8:30 Monday morning and dropped us off at 5:45 that afternoon. We were lucky enough to have Juan to ourselves as his only customers that day, but Juan has a Toyota Land Cruiser that seats at most and he prefers no more than five. That is because you will be walking through areas no other tour will take you. www.walkaboutadventures.com.au or juan@walkaboutadventures.com.au.
One of the places Juan took us to was to his friend, Binna, a local Aboriginal artist, who has his own art gallery, Janbal Gallery. Beautiful works. And Binna's pet bird would have appreciated it if we would have just moved on, thank you very much.
As our friend Maralin says from time to time, why are you still talking (typing)? Here you go. More to come with some talking (typing) later.
Golden Penda. The local bats feed off of it. The bats are the biggest bats I have ever seen. Juan says the bats taste like chicken (they are not quite as big as a chicken, but close), only sweeter.
This is an island the Aborigines stay away from. A bad witch doctor was buried there, so the story goes. If you look to the left, you can see his face sticking out of the water.
The picture below is a part of the Daintree River. Juan's grandfather was born where you see where the bank has given way. When his grandfather was born, the custom was to tie the umbilical cord around the nearest tree. There was a young coconut tree at the spot where Juan's grandfather was born and that is where his umbilical cord was tied. The coconut tree is no longer there. It died a week after Juan's grandfather died. Here are pictures of Juan collecting mussels along the river bank for lunch.
When Cyclone Ida came through about six weeks ago, from the top of her head Rene would have had about 5 meters of water to swim through to get to the surface of the river.
This is Morris.
He operates the farm on the other side of the river. Morris once owned the farm, but sold it and now runs it. Morris has had enough of the wet season. The cattle they breed here is a cross between Angus and Brahma. It tolerates the weather than Angus cattle do.
We took the Daintree Ferry to get to the rain forest. First to Walu Wugirriga. Some of the views from the rain forest were incredible. We'll stop talking. See for yourself.
Here are some pictures of the cocoworry bird. It is on the endangered species list. The the 188,000 acres of the Daintree, they estimate there are about 700 of them. We have talked to people in town who have been to the Daintree 12-15 times and have yet to see one. We saw two. Here is a young male who was stealing some fruit from a fruit stand display by the road. He was not happy that Juan stopped to get out of the car to get a couple of fresh bananas for us from the area (smaller, but much better tasting than what we get).
That was one angry bird. If provoked, they will try to kick you in the gut then yank down and disembowel you. We were safe in the car, but started to worry a little about Juan. The bird kept cornering him on the other side of the car. He walked up to the back seat window where Rene was sitting and hissed at her. Didn't get the picture, we were readying the plan to get Juan back in the car. Juan didn't need our help, but we like to think we would have helped.
More pictures.
This is the Golden Orb Weaver. Basically lives to keep the mosquitoes in check. She has her harem of males on the web with her. Kills them once she mates with them. And goes to die after she lays her eggs at the end of the season. Her web is one of the tackiest and strongest webs I have ever felt.
This is a Strangling Fig. When its seeds germinate at the base of of another tree, it grows over it host and kills it.
We came out on Douglass Ridge (I think). As we drove along the rood, you can see the ocean on either side. We are on Aboriginal land now. Sorry, my pictures were bad.
Here is a green ant nest. Off the ground, up in the tree. Kind of amazing how they fold the leaves over to make the nest. Green ants are tasty, too. They taste like lemons. A lot of vitamin C in green ants. Rene ate a couple for her cold. I ate them to see if they really tasted like lemons. They do.
On to Thornton Beach to the Mangrove Trees and to see if we could find a Mud Crab to supplement lunch. Here's a couple of pictures of soldier crabs. We saw hundreds marching along the beach in formation.
Rene by the Mangrove Tree.
The Mangrove Tree ecosystem is critical to the maintenance of the beach. Cyclone Ida was a category 5 cyclone, and a category 3 when it made landfall. There is some work and clean up being done in the area. But there is no comparison to the devastation we had in the Gulf Coast when Katrina hit. Maybe we could learn how the Aussies keep their coastline to how we do. Too late for us. I don't know if you can see it, but the picture of the branch was our attempt to show the valves on the branches of the Mangrove Tree. When the tide is up, the valves open to take in the water. The salt travels to the top of the tree and then is eliminated. For this particular tree, you can tell where the salt is, it's the yellow leaf that will fall off the tree. Close up and wide shot of the tree.
A soft shell crab. She went back.
A snail shell. When the snail dies, a hermit crab will come and take the shell. Okay, we all know that.
Lunch Menu.
Fresh mangoes, dragon fruit, and Custard Apple fro Central America
Homemade bread from Juan's mum
Freshwater mussels sautéed in butter and garlic with Juan's homemade chili sauce
Chocolate muffins made by Juan's mum
Stopped by a creek in the Daintree for lunch where we wouldn't be eaten by a croc. Dragonfruit is gray and looks like kiwi, but is sweeter and the seeds are crunchy. Even crunchier than green ants.
Deloosh.
Walking trough the rain forest back to another part of the Coral Sea. At high tide, the water would be up to our waists.
Paper Bark Tree.
A cycad tree. Fourth oldest plant group on the planet, after algae, moss, and ferns. Grows at about 600 millimeters every 100 years, according to Rene's recollection of what Juan said.. This one is about 5 to 6 meters tall. My American math tells me this tree is about 1,000 years old.
This guy curved. You do the math on that one.
Headed back.
A Mangrove Tree along the estuary. A lot different than the one's on the sea shore.
Cape Tribulation, named so after Captain Cook was feeling sorry for himself because he had no idea how to navigate the Great Barrier Reef. What a dummy. I had a hard time swimming over them in the shallow parts. Can't imagine how hard it would be to try to park one of those old sailing ships in there.
Juan cracking a green coconut. We found one that had dropped. So we had a coconut milk tasting
by the Tachalbadga Creek. The green coconut was not as sweet or as creamy as the older one. Rene chose the green one. I liked the older one and had some coconut on the way home.
Juan's family has Monday night dinner every week. His mum cooks for all of her children (4, Juan, his two brothers and sister) and her twenty grandchildren. A very close family and Juan was cutting it close to make it back for dinnertime.
We cleaned up and walked up the street to the Watergate restaurant off of Macrossan Street. We had a cocktail there the night before and met Lee, one of the bartenders there. Lee's wife, Alaina, works at the front desk at the Peninsula. The restaurant, like so many in Port Douglas, is open air. The Watergate has a rain forest theme. Go figure. Our server was Paulina, a young woman from the northeast part of France. The woman bussing the table was here from the U.K. Were are the Aussies? Anyway, we had a wonderful meal. Rene had the Reef fish special and I had kangaroo loin. Again, deloosh.
The clouds blew off so we could see the Southern Cross before turned in. Off tomorrow to Sydney. We'll miss this place. Maybe we'll stay. You don't know how close we came to staying. That's in Day 9.
Cheers!
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